Electrical Reconfiguration Technique for Partially Shaded PV Arrays with Minimal Interconnections

Because of rapid increase in the electricity demand and exhaustion of the conventional energy resources, the world needs a renewable energy resource that can supply energy limitlessly at no cost. Solar energy is the cleanest, reliable and safe alternative form of energy. However, the performance of solar PV modules changes with the variation in insolation level, temperature level, different environmental factors, aging of the panels and partial shading conditions (PSC). Amongst all these factors, PSC is the most commonly prevailing condition among the PV arrays invoking the mismatch and power losses. To mitigate these losses, various conventional interconnection topologies have been suggested in the literature. This paper presents an efficient interconnection technique for the PV modules which mitigates the effects of PSC. Moreover, the proposed interconnection technique is competent enough to enhance the power output with minimal interconnection ties when contrasted to various conventional PV reconfigurations like SP, TCT configurations thereby reducing the interconnection complexity and interconnection wiring losses.